NYT: How Boeing’s Responsibility in a Deadly Crash ‘Got Buried’

[MechEngr]

Originally Posted by Semreh

Actually no. The behaviour you describe, in a dictionary definition, is continual, not continuous. https://grammarist.com/usage/continual-continuous/
The behaviour of MCAS in the crash flights was not continuous, but continual. The trigger for MCAS was a continuous incorrect signal from the AoA indicator relied upon by the MCAS software, but the effect was continual pitch down commands to the stabiliser, some of which, to complicate matters, were ignored/unactioned in the periods during which the stab trim was deselected manually.
The difference, in English, is important. Certainly, I would expect a technical manual to be written carefully and for the writer to understand the difference between continuous and continual when writing a diagnostic procedure.

Nothing, therefore, in the flying of a plane is continuous. Every plane ends up on the ground and either in a smoking hole or, more often, the scrap yard.
Every. Single. Thing. Is. Intermittent.
I'm glad to explain how, in English, "continuous" has no meaning.